Improved paddle-wheel



UNITED STATES JOHN MAY, OF COLUMBUS, GEORGIA.

IMPROVED PADDLE-WHEEL Specitication forming part of Letters Patent No. 22,884, dated February 8, 1859..

To all whom, t may concern..-

Be it known that I, JOHN MAY, of Columbus, in the county of Muscogee and State of Georgia, have invented a new and useful improvement to be applied to paddle-wheels 'to permit their employment in steering or of the wheels and its appendages in a plane" parallel with the central vertical plane of the vessel. Fig. 4; is a horizontal section of the wheel and its appendages.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the Several figures.

My invention is to be applied in combination with that description of paddle-wheel whose floats are fitted to slots i-n a cylinder or drum and arranged so as to rotate on a different center to that Vof the drum, and are thereby caused to pass into and out of the drum in their revolution therewith, so as to project therefrom and be operative only while on one side of the axis of their revolution, of which description of Wheel an example is described in the schedule of my Letters Patent of September 7, 1858.

Myinvent-ion consists in so applying a movable frameoutside of such a wheel and in combination with the axle or center about which the buckets rotate as to provide for changing the position of the said axle or center in a circle concentric with the axis of the drum, and thereby causing the iioats to project from the drum on different sides of its axis, as may be desirable, according to the direction to be given to the vessel.

To enable others to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

In carrying out my invention to advantage the wheels must have the entire circumference submerged and should be arranged With their axes in a vertical or nearly vertical position. The cylindrical drumAof each Wheel is constructed and the floats B B tted thereto in guides C C in the same manner as de scribed in the schedule of my before-mentioned Letters Patent. The upper head of the drum is secured to a concentric shaft D, which Works in a suitable bearing@ within or on board the vessel, and the lower head thereof is bored centrally to t to turn on a short shaft E, which is itself fitted to turn in a bearing in a strong shoe F, arranged and secured near the bottom of the vessel and on the outside thereof. To this shaft E is secured the plate or block G, which is tted to a box or cavity within the lower head or bottom of the drum, and which carries the eccentric-pin H, which constitutes the axle on which the floats B B rotate. This pin may be made adjustable at different distances from the center of the drum in the manner and by the means described in the schedule of In-y former patent; butI have shown it as fixed in the plate or block G. The shaft D is the driving-shaft, and is represented as having a crank f at its upper end to drive it.

I is the frame by Which the pin His adjusted in a circle round the axis of the drum, said frame being of quadrangular or other -suitable form and having at the center of its top a hollow shaft J, which tits to the exterior of the drum-shaft D and passes up to the interior of or through the deck of the vessel. The bottom of the said frame I receives at its center the short shaftv E before described, to which it istirmly keyed or otherwise secured. The hollow shaft .I of the frame I is furnished on board the vessel with a stopwheel b, to which is applied a stop c for the purpose of locking the frame in any desirable position, which Wheel has geared with it a pinion d, the shaft e of which may be turned by hand or other means within the control of the engineer or other competent person on board the vessel to change the position of the frame after the Wheel b has been liberated from the stop c for thatpurpose. A separate Wheel may, however, be used for a stopwheel. The positions in which the floats project from the drum depends upon the position of the pin or. axle II relatively to the axis of the drum A, and this position depends upon the position of the frame I, and by changing the position of its frame each wheel may have its floats projected on such side of its axis as may be necessary to enable them to exert their propulsive effect either in a direction to propel the vessel forward, to move it sidewise, or even to propel it backward Without changing the direction of or even stopping the revolution of the Wheel.

In applying my invention to a vessel a singie pair or two or more pairs of Wheels may be used arranged at any part of the Vessel; but I propose, generally, only to use a single pair of Wheels and to arrange them in the counters of the vessel, as represented in the drawings. Y p Y Y What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

So applying and arranging a frame I outside of the Wheel and in combination with the axle or center H, on which the {ioats r0- tate, or its equivalent, that the said frame may be turned about the Wheel and by being,` so turned will change the position of the said axle or center H, or its equivalent, relatively to the center of the drum, and thereby cause the iioats to be projected from the drum in such positions relatively to the axis thereof as may be desired, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

` JOHN MAY. Witnesses:

HENRY T. BROWN, WM. TUscH. 

